Imagine, it is the late 1800s, you are a mother living in Scotland and it is the middle of winter. Everything is cold, and often it is also wet. Every night, as you tuck your children into their beds you are thankful for whoever it was who thought to make these stoneware bottles, you fill with hot water and tuck in with them. They warm the beds and ensure that the kids don't get too cold over night. Of course, it isn't just a useful thing for children - it's a luxury you enjoy yourself!
When I took this old stoneware hot water bottle to show the children, they had a huge amount of trouble recognising it. They thought it looked most like an old wine or spirits bottle and couldn't imagine what else it could be used for, if not for carrying some type of liquor. When I told them it was actually a hot water bottle they were very surprised. They knew that 'things had been around for warming beds' for centuries, but hadn't really spent a lot of time thinking about what sort of things were used to do this. They were also surprised by how big it was, and even more so when I explained that this example is actually quite small! Interestingly, the children all declared that 'whoever invented the hot water bottle was a genius', and that hot water bottles were far superior to any of the modern high tech equivalents, like microwave heat packs and electric blankets.
Although attempts to warm up bedding probably go back far further than we realise, the first known examples of 'hot water bottles' don't start to appear until around the 1500s. Before this people may have used hot vegetables or bricks, heated in the fire to warm beds, bodies or hands. Certainly, I know elderly people who still remember using both of these techniques, but they wouldn't leave a lot of evidence for archaeologists to find. The first known early 'bed heater' was the bed warmer. This was a metal, lidded pan which was filled with coals or embers from the fire and then used to heat up the bed. Some of the most famous examples were made of copper and had long, wooden handles which would stay cool enough to touch and could be used to move the warmer over the sheets, a bit like ironing! Often they were very ornate and pretty, and could even have a family crest etched into the metal.
Probably not too long after these bed warmers, stoneware and glass bottles started to appear. These were really the first 'hot water bottle' as they were designed to hold hot water which could then be used to heat the bed, or even a person. The hot water bottle I showed the children is just one example of such bottles and is a type which seems to have originated in Scotland. Not many glass examples survive because they broke much more easily, but stoneware and metal examples aren't too hard to come by and many people still use them today! Of course, now people are most familiar with the rubber versions of hot water bottles which appeared in the 20th century. These actually first started to be produced as a result of the motor industry, when Charles Goodyear (who made tyres) worked out how to make vulcanised rubber. One of the many uses for this new type of rubber was making hot water bottles. If you would like to learn more about the history of hot water bottles, click here.
